Genetic Variability and Correlation Coefficients of Major Traits in Early Maturing Rice under Rainfed Lowland Environments of Nepal

Genetic variability is the fundamental requirement of any crop breeding program to develop superior cultivars. The objective of this study was to estimate the genetic variability and find out the correlation among the different quantitative traits of rainfed early lowland rice. The experiment was conducted consecutively two years during 2015 and 2016 in wet season across the four different locations in Regional Agricultural Research Station, Khajura, National Wheat Research Program, Bhairahawa, National Maize Research Program, Rampur, and National Rice Research Program, Hardinath, along the Terai region of Nepal representing subtropical agroclimate. Seven genotypes including Hardinath-1 as standard check variety were evaluated in the randomized complete block design with three replications. Various quantitative traits were measured to investigate the variability and correlation coefficients. All the genotypes and locations showed significant variations for all the traits considered. Genotypic coefficient of variation was lower than phenotypic coefficient of variation for all traits studied. The magnitudes of genotypic coefficient of variations were relatively higher for grain yield, 1000-grain weight, and days to heading. The highest broad sense heritability of 94% was recorded in days to maturity and the lowest heritability of 16% was observed in plant height. Positive and highly significant correlations were found both in genotypic and phenotypic levels between days to heading and days to maturity (rg=0.9999 ⁎⁎, rp=0.997 ⁎⁎), days to heading and grain yield (rg =0.9999 ⁎⁎, rp= 0.9276 ⁎⁎), and days to maturity and grain yield (rg =0.9796 ⁎⁎, rp=0.9174 ⁎⁎). However, negative and highly significant genetic correlation was observed between plant height and 1000-grain weight (rg = -0.9999 ⁎⁎). Thus results indicated that days to heading, days to maturity, grain yield, 1000-grain weight demonstrating higher heritability and remarkable genetic advance could be considered the most appropriate traits for improvement and selection of trait to achieve stable and high yielding early rice genotypes under rainfed environments.